Today, Waves of Fiction is participating in the blog tour hosted by ATOMR for Sweetest Taboo and Tainted Love by Eva Marquez. We were lucky enough to receive both books for review. Take a look!
Published October 1st 2012 by Terra-Mía Press
About the book
Isabel Cruz was fifteen years old when she met Tom Stevens. She was 15 when they started dating, and 16 when she lost her virginity to him. By the time she turned 18 and went to college, everything had fallen apart.
This hadn’t been an ordinary love, though. Not a love between two dear friends, or even high school sweethearts. This had been the most taboo sort of love there was: a relationship between a student and her teacher. Isabel started her high school career as a normal student, but set her sights on Tom Stevens as soon as she met him, and pursued him with an intense – and sometimes reckless – fascination. When he finally approached her after swim practice and told her that he shared her feelings, it was the start of a forbidden and dangerous relationship.
Join Isabel as she makes her way through this dark love story, hiding from teachers, lying to her parents, and defying the authorities to make a life with the man she loves. Watch as she discovers the wonders of love and romance, and the terrible betrayal of jealous friends. And cry with her when she learns the hard truth about life and the people in her world.
Sweetest Taboo is inspired by the true and tragic stories of students who fall in love with their teachers, and live with the hard truths of forbidden romances. In a world full of after-school specials on sexual predators, this touching book seeks a different path, casting both student and teacher in a gentle light, and showing that true love may lie at the base of even the most illicit romance.
My Thoughts
I knew when I started reading this book that I was going to have a difficult time reviewing it. Even as I sit here trying to commit some words to my reaction, I know I’m not going to be able to succinctly say everything I want to express about how I felt. This book is controversial and shocking, yet intriguing in a car-accident sort of way. So, hats off to Eva Marquez for causing me readers conflict in what I would say is an intriguing read despite its sensitive subject.
In the Sweetest Taboo, we meet Isabel who is a sixteen year old girl who falls for her 30-something year old swim coach Tom. Through the course of a few years, they engage in an illicit and illegal relationship, and this first book in the series shares their story from Isabel’s perspective.
My three star rating is not reflective of how I felt of the main characters, Isabel or Tom. In no way did I condone their actions and I didn’t feel there was any sense of romanticism to their story. Witnessing the relationship from Isabel’s perspective, we hear directly from her that she sought Tom out and persistently pursued his attention. He claimed to be in a loveless marriage with what he considered to be his “roommate” rather than his wife. That does not condone his actions in any way, though, because he clearly stood in a position of power being her coach and an adult. The story conveys that Isabel knew she was pursuing a married man with two children, but at the end of the day she’s still a child herself. At times, I felt Tom was playing on a teenage crush with emotional strategies that I don’t think Isabel was qualified to counter. He knew it was wrong and he continued to engage, which made it difficult to sensitize myself toward him or Isabel.
Isabel’s behavior throughout the novel was tough to overcome. She lied to her parents, friends and authorities; she manipulated her family and Tom several times throughout the book; and she pursued two adult males in the course of the story (both of which were in committed relationships). I could never quite understand her actions, and I couldn’t chalk it up to low self-esteem because we heard the story from her voice and she clearly wasn't lacking in that regard.
The Sweetest Taboo did not appall me because it’d make me ignorant to the fact that these sort of relationships occur, which we know they do. We’ve seen it on the news, heard rumors about them in the hallway. I guess what struck me as shocking was hearing the story from a minor’s perspective and witnessing the many lies and manipulative techniques she employed at such a young age. It felt like it came so easy to her with very little remorse or emotional reactions. She seemed so skilled in her craft that I was shocked more than sympathetic toward her.
Overall, the Sweetest Taboo is a very sensitive topic where I never really connected with the characters, but that didn’t stop me from being drawn to the story itself. I wouldn’t go so far as to label this a “love affair” but rather a “tragic mistake.” I finished it one sitting, and I can only attribute that to Eva Marquez’s ability to depict a very intriguing story with captivating words. Marquez truly caught my attention.
3 Suns
Published March 5th 2013 by Terra-Mia Press
About the book
Isabel was never like the other girls at her school in the sleepy town of Hillside, California. At sixteen she fell in love with Tom, a married swim coach at Royal Oaks High School; their exhilarating and sultry affair continuing in secret for several years. Finally, Isabel realized that her own future had to come first, but even after relocating to Washington, D.C. to study at Lincoln University, she finds herself still wracked by guilt over jeopardizing the happiness and security of Tom’s young family. Now almost in her twenties and desperate to start a new chapter in her life, free from past controversies, Isabel will once again find that her beauty and precociousness will captivate another older man, this time a professor at her university. Confronted by this burgeoning affair, Isabel realizes just how deeply she still loves Tom and, in spite of the disapproval of her hometown community, her feelings become too strong to deny.
When Isabel returns to Hillside, reunited with Tom, she feels herself falling for him all over again, only this time with the tantalizing promise that things could really work out for them, especially since she is no longer the naive teen she used to be. But all is not as it seems; Isabel begins to hear rumors about Tom’s involvement with other girls at Royal Oaks High. Quickly this salacious gossip leaks to the local media and the authorities begin to investigate the claims. Only then does the true gravity of Isabel’s misguided choices begin to profoundly affect those around her and threaten to derail her life completely.
Tainted Love is the thrilling follow up to Sweetest Taboo by Eva Marquez, and rejoins Isabel Cruz as she tries to put her complex and forbidden romance with Tom behind her. Written from the perspectives of both Isabel and Tom, the irrational and desperate love they share is brought to vivid life by Marquez. Inspired by the conviction of one of her former high school teachers for sexual misconduct with a minor, it addresses a poignant modern taboo, one that is becoming increasingly common in the US, with unnerving insight and precision. Tainted Love is a must read for young adults, their parents and all fans of romantic fiction.
My Thoughts
Tainted Love continues the story of Isabel and Tom a year after she left Hillside High School to attend college in DC. In this installment we get to hear from a few more perspectives including Isabel, Tom and a small tidbit from her brother Tony. Despite a year of being apart, Isabel and Tom still feel a connection, and they ultimately pick up their affair where it left off. However, since the time they’ve been apart, Tom has left his wife and Isabel has continued to hide their secret from her family.
I was just as intrigued in this book as I was in the first, but where I was unable to activate my sensitivity chip for Isabel in book one, that wasn’t the case for Tom in book two. We learn more about his backstory, what he’s had to deal with in the last year and how he truly feels about Isabel despite the ramifications involved. Isabel is no longer a minor, but that doesn’t make the possibility of them being together any less messy. At the end of this installment, I just ended up feeling sorry for Tom and realizing he was the one in over his head because he’s dealing with a very complicated and emotionally shallow Isabel.
Again, in this book, I failed to gain any sort of sympathy for Isabel. She involves herself once again with a professor in the university, which proves to be more than she can handle. It was tough to see how quickly she disregards family and friends, so to say that I hope she gets a happily ever after would be more than I really wish for Isabel. I struggled with her throughout the book. She clearly shows that she wants to be in a messy relationship, but she doesn’t want to have to deal with the disappointment it will cause her family or the judgment she’ll get from others. She doesn’t want to face the questions, assumptions or ramifications of her choices, so in the end I’m still waiting for this character to grow up.
Despite my lack of feelings for Isabel, I am very much intrigued where her choices will ultimately lead her. So in the end, I can’t wait for the final book to see how this all pans out for Isabel and Tom. Intriguing writing and captivating plot that kept me engaged despite my opinion of the main characters.
3 Suns
Great review! this books looks and sound very intriging to me I never read a book about a teacher and student relationship because I am afraid I won't like them at all but it is very intresting to read about the student and teacher's POV I might check this one out thanks for sharing!
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